Nutrient Sponges

[BarryBenthic]

Hey Reefers!

I am very new to the hobby with just shy of 2 months on my tank. As corny as it sounds I really feel like I have a deeper understanding of systems. The seriousness of knowing these animals and life are dependent on your level of care really drives me to learn and understand as much as you can.

I have so much more I want to understand but one aspect that really feels like a black box to me are nutrients. Like many I definitely am guilty of overfeeding. I left on a short vacation for the first time and with only a single clownfish the Eheim autofeeder was a little aggressive on the lowest setting for a small clown. When I came back everything was much greener and evidence of green cyano was all over the sand. I was worried the added food was increasing the load on the system. After testing the water I found 0.10 ppm nitrate, 0 ammonia, phosphates at 0.05 ppm, and all the items I dose are looking good (Alk, Cal, and Mag all stable).

Clearly the algae growth is absorbing the extra nutrients sort of like a sponge. Another aspect is seeing how well the copepods and hydroid medusae are doing. I worry like a sponge or battery I cannot just change the inputs to reduce the nutrients without shocking the system. How would those of you with more knowledge and experience think about dealing with low nutrients because there is so much absorbtion capacity in the system?

 

[sixty_reefer]

Nutrientes are one of my favourite subjects in aquaria, I’ve been studying them on a deeper level for some time.
To use a similar example as you have used above, imagine them as a circuit board that can’t be switched off, the power needs to be on at all times as everything in your tank is dependent on that power to survive.
What you can do is creating more outlets to use that power, in a young tanks there isn’t usually many diversity to use it therefore algae and bacteria tends to be one of the main ones using it. The bacteria needs that power also if you allow it to run out your biological filter tends to start having energy problems and the algae will do well without it.

In your situation I would increase No3 (neonitro) to a suitable level (1-10) ppm and look at add more outlets (competition) this can be a introduction of a algae refugium for example. You could also increase the strength of your biological filter by adding something like MB7 this last option is part of a more confusing circuit although I hope the general idea helps with some basics.

 

[BarryBenthic]

Nutrientes are one of my favourite subjects in aquaria, I’ve been studying them on a deeper level for some time.
To use a similar example as you have used above, imagine them as a circuit board that can’t be switched off, the power needs to be on at all times as everything in your tank is dependent on that power to survive.
What you can do is creating more outlets to use that power, in a young tanks there isn’t usually many diversity to use it therefore algae and bacteria tends to be one of the main ones using it. The bacteria needs that power also if you allow it to run out your biological filter tends to start having energy problems and the algae will do well without it.

In your situation I would increase No3 (neonitro) to a suitable level (1-10) ppm and look at add more outlets (competition) this can be a introduction of a algae refugium for example. You could also increase the strength of your biological filter by adding something like MB7 this last option is part of a more confusing circuit although I hope the general idea helps with some basics.

I have added a week ago some ceramic ball media to hopefully add surface area for more bacteria on the biological filter side. I also plan to mix in frozen foods to try to boost No3 as I found my clown loves TDO B2 Chroma pellets for his tiny mouth. If that does not seem to boost No3 I will look at other No3 sources. While nothing good happens fast in an aquarium I am looking to add more fish with the first addition of a crab and goby likely this week with more to follow with some waiting periods in-between (perhaps a week or three). I thank you for the circuit analogy as that makes sense to me I just have a lot of fauna with no real predidation such as the (literally hundreds if not thousands) of hydroids. Sort of fascinating to see so much life thriving under alien conditions not found naturally in my local non-reef biome.